Chavez has US running scared over rise of Left

The US is paying out 400 million a year in aid. I’m sure it’s not for free, is the US getting it’s money’s worth. I don’t think so.

Snip
Chavez has US running scared over rise of Left
By Jeremy McDermott, Latin America Correspondent
(Filed: 29/04/2005)

America is showing increasing signs of alarm at the influence of Hugo Chavez, the firebrand Leftist president of Venezuela who has eclipsed Fidel Castro as Washington's regional bogeyman.
Condoleezza Rice, the secretary of state, yesterday visited Colombia, the last steadfast ally of the US in South America after Ecuador's Lucio Gutierrez was driven from power last week.
She promised that US aid would continue at present levels of some £400 million a year, despite the fact that the war on drugs has stalled and Marxist guerrillas have a launched a series of attacks that have wrong-footed the US-backed military.
After a polite rebuttal in Brazil, Miss Rice has received support only from Colombia during her tour of Latin America - designed to isolate Mr Chavez. Link

And here is the real reason of US meddling

An Inter-American Development Bank study said Latin America had the most unequal distribution of resources in the world with 20 per cent of the population controlling more than 60 per cent of the wealth.
This is one of the reasons that a wave of Left-leaning leaders has been elected in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Venezuela and Uruguay, while US-friendly leaders have been deposed in Ecuador, Argentina and Bolivia. Link